Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:08 — 22.3MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Blubrry | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | More
What a week in the Champions League quarter-final second legs! We take a look at some of the stories from those games in this week’s Learn English Through Football Podcast. We have a tricky quiz question, and also introduce some English for football phrases, including ‘to suffer a defeat‘. We also have some exciting games to look forward to in our predictions section including Tottenham v Manchester City, at the end of the show. For those wishing to improve their English, there’s a transcript to the show below and if you have questions or comments, email us at: admin@languagecaster.com (Damian=DF, Damon=DB).
Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2018 Tottenham versus Manchester City
DB: You are listening to Languagecaster’s football-language podcast. Hi there everyone! Welcome to the show for all those who love football and wish to improve their English skills. My name is Damon and I live in Tokyo where spring has sprung and more importantly, my team’s season kicked off this weekend! Football, don’t you just love it! Down the line in London is Damian, and I wonder how he is doing? Damian? How are things?
DF: Hello Damon and hello to all our listeners. Well done on your first game of the season, how did it go?
DB: 2-0 victory!
DF: Did you score?
DB: I’m a right back! No, I didn’t.
DF: Well done for the clean sheet though.
DB: Yes.
DF: Well, finally spring has arrived here in London too with blue skies and sunshine this morning. Ah, finally! What a week of football we have had so far…
DB: Indeed.
DF: …the quarter-finals of the two European competitions, that’s the Champions League and the Europa League, were amazing. And there are some huge games taking place this weekend too including the Ruhr derby in Germany, the Rome derby in Italy, the Old Firm derby in Scotland, a top-of-the-table clash in Portugal, Man City against Tottenham – wow! Talking of which, Damon, did you watch the Liverpool v Manchester City Champions League second leg?
DB: Oh I did – from behind the sofa! It was nail-biting stuff, but I’m bloody well over the moon, the Reds are through to the semis, even if they face a tricky tie against AS Roma.
DF: Yes, all games at this stage of the competition are going to be tough but the Roma game will bring back happy memories of the 1984 European Cup final between the two sides when your team won on penalties.
DB: They certainly will and of course 1977 too.
DF: Of course. Yes, we’ll be talking more about the Champions League and Europa League quarter-finals in our review section, which is coming up after this little message.
You’re listening to languagecaster.com (in Italian)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
DB: Yes you are listening to languagecaster.com. And we’d love more messages in as many different languages as possible, especially with the 2018 World Cup coming up, or if you want to let us know your name, who you support and add ‘you are listening to languagecaster.com’, do that and send it to us at admin@languagecaster.com. Right, now time for some news from the footballing week in the good, the bad and the ugly. Damian, what was good?
Good
DF: OK, I’m going to start with the Champions League and with Roma, who pulled off an amazing come back in the second leg of their quarter-final tie against Barcelona. Down 4-1 from the first leg, Roma overwhelmed Barcelona 3-0 to go through on the away goals rule. Of course, they scored one at the Nou Camp in Barcelona, meaning that although the two result of the two legs finished 4-4, Roma went through. It was simply a remarkable game.
DB: Yes.
DF: But that wasn’t the end of the European comebacks as both Salzburg and Marseille staged amazing comebacks of their own in their Europa League second leg matches. The Austrian team RB Salzburg were 4-2 down from their first leg against Italian team Lazio and then went further behind after the team from Rome scored an away goal but an amazing four-goal blitz in 20 minutes saw the Austrian team qualifying 6-5 on aggregate. French side Marseille also came from behind in their match against RB Leipzig to win 5-2 on the night and 5-3 on aggregate. Amazing stuff indeed.
DB: Wow!
DF: What about bad, Damon?
Bad
DB: Well let’s stick to the Champions League, and it was a bit bad and sad as Juventus failed to make an even more amazing come back than Roma. The Italian side lost 4-3 on aggregate after getting back into the tie against Real Madrid with three goals, only to see a penalty awarded in injury time against them. Now, the bad was Juve’s goalkeeper, Buffon’s reaction to the award of the penalty, as he confronted the referee, earning himself a red card – he received his marching orders. And the sad is that it ended that way for such a great player and that a remarkable come back was not to be. Ugly?
Ugly
DF: Well, for ugly I am going to continue with that Buffon story as his post-match comments were not good at all – he has been a true superstar of the game and to personally attack a referee by saying his ‘heart is a dustbin‘ does tarnish his reputation. Now, it was possibly his last game in the Champions League as well but this was no excuse for the attack on the referee. It was also an ugly end to Pep Guardiola’s Champions League for the season after his half-time rant (that’s a verbal attack) at the Spanish referee earned him a red card – he received his marching orders – meaning that he had to watch the second half from the stand. Ugly scenes from two of the biggest names in European football.
You’re listening to languagecaster.com (in Polish)
Follow
DB: Now, remember that you can get in touch with us in all the usual ways. Our site is languagecaster.com, we are on twitter, we have a Facebook account, and we are on Instagram – and we have posted some photos from both Japan and London this week. So drop us a line and say hello, and please spread the word! Now one of our followers who got in touch was Johannes, who explained how the phrase ‘to get his/her marching orders‘, which we’ve just heard in our good, the bad and ugly section, has a different meaning when used in German to the meaning it has when used in English. To receive or to get your marching orders in English means to be sent off, to be told to leave the field. But Johannes says in German it means someone is assigned a special task usually requiring skill and bravery. And it’s more often used to stress the special skills of someone, qualifying him or her for a special task. Now, thanks for that Johannes!
DF: That’s really interesting. We’d also like to thank Jose from Brazil who offered some kind words about our podcast and also asked about that Cristiano Ronaldo overhead kick from the first leg of their quarter-final against Juventus. He wondered if the referee had judged that CR7’s foot was too high when he bicycle kicked and called it a foul – what kind of foul could it be? He suggested that in Portuguese (Brazil) it’s called “pie alto” (high foot) when a player raises his foot to the height of the opponent’s head, so it’s like dangerous play. Well, in English this would be something similar – ‘a high foot’ or ‘the player’s foot was too high’ and an indirect free-kick would be awarded.
DB: Thanks Jonannes and Jose for the questions and remember if any of our listeners would like to ask a football question then drop us a line at admin@languagecaster.com
Right, next Damian has a tricky quiz question for your about the Champions League.
Quiz Question
DF: Yes it is. For this week’s quiz question we would like to know when was the last time that four different countries made up the semi-finalists in the Champions League? So, when was the last time their were four different countries in the last four? And we’ll have the answer at the end of the show.
Right, next up we have this week’s football language explanation.
Football Language: Suffer a defeat
DB: OK, I’m going to talk about a verb that goes with the noun ‘defeat’; and defeat means a loss, losing to an opponent. You will often hear people say a team suffered a defeat. The verb suffer and the noun defeat collocate – that is they often go together. Suffer has the feeling of pain, so using suffer a defeat emphasises the feeling of a negative result. Another verb that collocates, often goes with, defeat is fall, so fall to a defeat. So, here is an example from the Guardian newspaper (April 2018) this week describing a win for Aston villa and a loss for Leeds United: “Aston Villa moved to within two points of the Championship automatic promotion places with a 1-0 win over Leeds. Lewis Grabban’s first-half header was enough to give them victory at Villa Park as Leeds fell to their 10th defeat of 2018. Paul Heckingbottom suffered his seventh defeat in 13 games since taking over as Leeds manager”
DB: OK, now next it’s our predictions section, and I wonder if Manchester City will suffer a fourth defeat in a row later today?
Predictions
Crystal Palace v Brighton and Hove Albion
DF: Right let’s kick off with Crystal Palace versus Brighton and Hove Albion. Although these teams are not geographically close, there is a massive rivalry between them. A must win for both Palace and Brighton if they want to stay in the Premier League. Damon, what do you reckon?
DB: Well, in these cases I usually go for home advantage so, 2-1 to Palace. You?
DF: I think Palace will have too much for Brighton, so maybe 2-0 for me. How about the next game Tottenham versus Manchester City?
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City
DB: Well this game is huge for City – if they lose four on the bounce that will really be news. Tottenham are probably favourites going into this – you might not think that Damian. It’s at home, they beat City last year, and City must be shell-shocked after losing to Liverpool twice and their city rivals Manchester United in the past three games. But, I’m going for a 2-2 draw. Can your boys make it four losses in a row for City?
DF: I’m not so sure as I can’t see City losing four times in ten days. Maybe a draw? Oh, let’s go for a Spurs win – 2-1… 2-1 Come on spurs!
West Ham v Stoke City
DB: OK, our final game is another relegation battle. West Ham look safe and a win would ease the nerves. If Stoke lose they look doomed. But I think Stoke are going down and West ham will win this 1-0. Damian?
DF: I think I might be going to this game on Monday as my brother is a West Ham fan.
DB: Ooh nice…
DF: Yes, it should be a cracking atmosphere but I wonder if Stoke might get something here – 1-1 for me.
Good bye
DB: And before we go, let’s get the answer to the quiz question we asked earlier – when was the last time their were four different countries in the last four of the Champions League?
DF: Well, the answer is in 2009-10, when teams from Germany (Bayern Munich), France (Lyon), Italy (Internazionale) and Spain (Barcelona) made up the semi-finalists. Of course, Inter went on to lift the trophy with a 2-0 win against Bayern.
DB: And that wraps up this week’s show. Ta-rah!
DF: Enjoy all the football this weekend including all those big derbies…
DB: Massive
DF: …and next week we’ll be looking ahead to the FA Cup semi-finals.
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here
If you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
